Robert Enright

Personal Biography

Professor Enright has pioneered the scientific study of forgiveness, which now claims over 1,000 researchers worldwide. He has been honored with a Vilas Associateship Award, the Dean’s Club Faculty Achievement Award, and the campus-wide Hilldale Award in the Social Studies Division for his research on forgiveness. His National Conference on Forgiveness was the first of its kind on any university campus. His various research grants have centered on moral development. One of the most gifted teachers on campus, Dr. Enright is a recipient of the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award and the Wisconsin Student Association Teaching Award. He teaches courses in moral development with an emphasis on the psychology of forgiveness. He is a popular speaker on the moral development of forgiveness, with his work appearing in such outlets as Time magazine, the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and ABC’s 20/20. He is a former member of the editorial board of Child Development and is currently on the editorial board of the Journal of Early Adolescence.

Research Interests

My research interests center on moral development, particularly the development of forgiveness. There are four primary research projects concerning forgiveness on which students and I are working. One is a Forgiveness Therapy process model that postulates a series of steps involved in one person forgiving another. Forgiveness Therapy reduces anger in people treated unjustly by others and as the anger decreases, psychological well-being is enhanced. My students and I are currently developing a series of interventions on forgiveness aimed at youth and adults who have suffered from various kinds of interpersonal injustice. Areas of interest for such interventions include bullying in schools, people in prisons, women who have suffered from gender-based violence in various parts of the world, and patients facing serious physical illnesses. The intervention approach is described in my book with the psychiatrist, Dr, Richard Fitzgibbons, Forgiveness Therapy (2015) and the book, The Forgiving Life (2012) both published by the American Psychological Association. ***** The second area of research centers on the development of forgiveness education materials for children in violent and impoverished environments. We have tested the effectiveness of the forgiveness education approach in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and in Seoul, Korea, for example. It is our contention that if we can reduce anger (through forgiveness education) when a person is young, then he or she may have an important protective factor from developing harmful anger as he or she goes through life.***** The third area is the development of strategies for assessing group forgiveness, or the extent to which one group forgives another group (in contrast to one person forgiving another person). We are developing this work with samples from China and Taiwan and African-American and European-American groups in the United States. Other areas of the world are being considered such as Monrovia, Liberia, Africa. This work interests us because of its potential to influence the peace movement. If we can identify those groups that are least forgiving, then this could be an area of intervention to reduce the resentment (through Forgiveness Therapy and Forgiveness Education programs) before that resentment and even hatred spill over to conflict or even war with other groups.***** A fourth project is the refinement of a scale to measure the psychology of forgiveness, the Enright Forgiveness Inventory. We have examined the validity of this scale in six different cultures to date. The scale is published by Mind Garden. The new project is to develop the short form of the Enright Forgiveness Inventory (reducing the original scale from 60 to 30 items). We are focusing on several world cultures to validate the short-form scale. ***** A fifth area is………well…….that will depend on the creativity of new students and visiting scholars who will enter into this life-giving area of research. You are welcome to come and develop this fifth pillar of work in the psychology of forgiveness.

Awards and Honors

Cecil Findley Distinguished Service Award
Organization: The Crossing
Description: for international peacemaking
Date(s): April 13, 2012

Distinguished Peace Educator of the Year Award
Organization: Wisconsin Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies Honored Instructors Award, Academic Initiatives of the Division of University Housing, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Scope: UW Madison
Date(s): 2009

Paul Harris Fellow
Organization: Rotary International
Purpose: Scholarship/Research
Scope: International
Description: for work in the peace movement
Date(s): 2006

Who’s Who in American Education
Scope: National
Date(s): 2006

Who’s Who In America
Scope: National
Date(s): 2005

The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill and Community Service Providers of Wisconsin
Purpose: Scholarship/Research
Scope: National
Description: Outstanding Research award (for our forgiveness intervention at the Tellurian UCAN drug rehabilitation center)
Date(s): March 2003

Lee, Y., & Enright, R.D. Fathers’ forgiveness as a moderator between perceived unfair treatment by a family of origin member and anger with own children. Unpublished Manuscript, University of Wisconsin, Madison. 17, 22-31.

Klatt, J., & Enright, R.D. Investigating the place of forgiveness within the Positive Youth Development paradigm. Unpublished Manuscript, University of Wisconsin, Madison. 38, 35-52.